My approach is to dump it on the floor (need to use a table from now on, getting too old for the floor) and sort. I pull out all strips, put in a pile, all squarish, all longer and folded fabrics and try to sort by shapes (the first photo).
Later, I pull all the batiks and sort by shapes and bigger amounts as I keep my batik fabric separate from the regular cottons. I also keep solids separate. Then all the kids fabric goes in a pile. Leftover binding in a pile, and weird shape scraps in another, whites and similar in another. Then I take one pile at a time and iron and fine sort. Then I start to cut. I made a big mistake not buying an Accuquilt Studio cutter when it was on sale recently. Wanda told me about it and I balked because we were trading in a car for a new one. Now, the cutter costs $200 more and I can't get it. I think the cutter would have allowed me to plow through these quicker and have more time to sew.
I cut my scraps- strips, 2 1/2", 2", 1 1/2" . Squares- 2", 2 1/2", 3 1/2", 5", 6", 9" and 10". Anything smaller than a fat quarter gets cut up. I store the cut pieces in plastic storage boxes, hopefully by color and value. Filing in boxes sometimes lags. When I make a scrap quilt, I pull the pieces out of my cut stash. Bonnie Hunter's system helped me. Need to find a better way to store the plethora of plastic boxes.
The more the variety of scraps, the better the quilts look.
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| Table of presorted scraps by shape |
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| Piles unsorted- top left- childrens, bottom- batiks, middle- larger pieces, top right- white and oddball shapes |
3 comments:
You and me both!! I LOVE scraps!! I'm a bit behind on cutting mine but I sort them pretty much the same way you do - size/shape first - then by color. I separate out my batiks - solids - and neutrals. Then I cut strips - but I don't cut squares unless it's a too small for a strip - because I figure I can always cut squares from the strips if I need to. And, yeah - you need to get a Studio cutter - but wait until it goes on sale - and it WILL go on sale - just be patient - it will be worth the wait - ;))
I need to sort my scraps, I am very haphazard in the way I do it.
Also check out the sizzix big shot pro die cutter (may not be exactly the right name) -- i have one and with a thin shim sheet I can use all of the accuquilt dies! Overstock.com is where I found mine for quite a bit less than the studio cutter. I love mine.
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